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Wood - a natural product with an ecologic, economic and social key function in alpine regions

PROJECT ALPENFORUM +IWS:

ESTABLISHMENT OF AN INTEGRATED E-PLATFORM WOOD

On their meeting in Wildhaus April 6, 2001 ALPENDFORUM and IWS formally founded the Task force "New Economy" and decided to establish, as the Task force´s first project, an electronic internet platform and marketplace wood. Rational and prerequisites of this project are outlined below. The Task force welcomes suggestions and scientific as well as technical contributions in such fields as forestry, forest conservation, wood technology, innovative application (e. g. housing, wood construction, furniture to be examined as potential qualified presentations within the framework of the e-platform.

1. The economic and social significance of wood

• Wood has enormous economic and social significance for mountain regions. The following examples may underline this fact: Forestry and the wood business in Austria as well as in other alpine countries is an important economic factor and major employer. Austria´s forests cover 3,92 million ha (1996). Wood is Austria´s most important export product with a total value of 63,6 Billion ATS in 1996.
• 7000 energy centres in Austria utilize wood as an energy resource, secure 22 000 jobs and cover an estimated 10 % of Austria´s energy requirements
• In Styria alone (one of several Austrian states) approx. 5000 wood companies are in operation with thousands of employees. The government intends to combine this economic potential in a so called "wood cluster".
• A significant part of Austrian Economy relies on medium and smaller sized companies engaged in such fields as logging, wood building and construction, wood furniture, or the pulp and paper industry. The same accounts for large forested areas in the Swiss, Italian, French or Bavarian Alps,

2. The ecologic significance of wood

• The significance of forests as filters for clean air, or water reservoir and their vital contribution to the prevention of erosion, landslides, avalanches, rock falls or inundation is self explanatory.
• Even though the integrated CO2-balance of wood still leaves room to open questions, it can be maintained that wood is in essence a renewable raw material and CO2 neutral.
• Wood as a natural product can be recycled. In addition, it can also be used as a valuable energy source alternative to fossil sources.

3. Wood innovation and added value

Notwithstanding excellent prerequisites as a source of highly qualified technical material wood has to cope with considerable handicaps:

• Forest volume increase is higher than the increase of wood utilization. European forested surface has gone up from 175 million ha (1960) to above 200 million ha at present, whereas wood utilisation increased from 13 to 19 billion cubic metres.
• Only 71 % of wood growth increase is used in Austria, and not more than approx. 60 % in the rest of Europe. Because of this, in Germany alone logging could be increased from 35 million cubic metres to 56 million cubic metres. · Within the quantities utilized, the predominant part of wood is used for low priced applications and only offers a low added value.
• Despite considerable innovative progress within wood application technology, particularly in technical construction, it must be recognised that leading companies involved in large scale wood construction, wood bridge building or other technical applications, deplore a wide spread prejudice against the utilization of wood as highly qualified construction material. A vast conglomerate of rather outdated standards, rules and legislations as well as a massive "steel and concrete"-lobby impedes a more pronounced "high-tech" application of wood and a an unbiased wood profile. Leading wood research institutes arrive at similar conclusions.

Considerable efforts have already been made to change this situation and to promote the use of wood more effectively as a an indigenous natural raw material source and its application as a high quality type of construction material:

• Wood certification FSC
• "Action pro Wood" (Aktion Pro Holz, Holzinformation Deutschland)
•  "Initiative Wood" (Initiative Holz, Holzinformation Österreich)
• "The wood route" (a scenic drive in Styria exemplifying the merits of wood material) · Numerous conferences and workshops dealing with wood as a renewable source and its application in different fields
• Regional, national and international organisations concentrating on wood as a renewable energy source, such as CARMEN (biomass network Würzburg). EUBIA (European Biomass Industry Assoc., Brussels), or ERMA (European Renewable Materials Assoc., Paris).
• Several wood research institutes operate within the scope of alpine regions, such as the Wood Institute at the university of Munich. It must be noted, however, that there still does not exist a corresponding independent institution on an Academic (University) level in Austria, with the exception of a technical wood institute in Judenburg, an Annex to the Joanneum in Graz.

4. Is wood promotion properly focussed?

Taking into account the considerations elaborated under 1, 2 and 3 it seems rather surprising that apparently no organisation so far has focussed upon the economic, scientific, technical, ecologic and social significance of the natural resource wood within the framework of an integrated, modern electronic platform, optionally combined with a corresponding electronic wood market place and applying up to date digital communication and information to this end.

A preliminary investigation in the Internet reveals two organisations which present on a modest scale some of the information required:

•  "The global Timber e-Market" www. TimberWeb.co.uk This organisation is an e-market place seated in Kesgrave Hall, Suffolk, UK. Its internet portal is limited practically exclusively to timber (raw wood). For example, the membership list covers e.g. 11 smaller companies in Austria, and some 30 companies in Germany, mostly exporters. logging and saw mill companies, No structured information is presented on behalf of the processing industry, such as furniture producers, construction and building companies, bio-energy centres, industrial wood organisations, state and government institutions, forest and wood agencies, research and private institutions. Progress in wood technology is not commented.
•  "HOLZ.de, das Portal zur Holzwirtschaft" www.Holz.de This is a simple wood portal, not an electronic wood market place. The portal reveals an extended list of wood companies, a job trading offer, and cursory information on forthcoming wood events. The material presented reveals no detailed integrated insight into the present status of wood technology. and relevant modern applications.

5. Project ALPENFORUM + IWS: Establishment of an integrated electronic Wood Platform

The broad economic, technical and social significance of wood as a natural resource in alpine regions justifies its presentation within the scope of an integrated electronic platform and market place. The presentation should reflect general aspects of wood and forestry, the chain of wood processing and refinement, and in particular a survey of innovative wood application technologies. The information should equally include scientific and technical research and development improvements in wood application. The beneficiaries of such a digital presentation with global perspective and use should - in first instance - be the forestry cultivation and logging business, the wood construction industry, the furniture producers, energy providing companies based on wood as an energy resource, the paper and pulp industry , the manufacturers of wood compounded construction and isolation material based on lignin or cellulose, the research and development organisations and last but not least the government agencies and political institutions involved. In forestry ,economy and social affairs.

ALPENFORUM and IWS (Institute for Economic and Social Questions) will present the results of their cooperation project INTEGRATED E-WOOD PLATFORM at the UN International Year of the Mountains 2001.

A successful and practice oriented implementation of this project will essentially depend on the availability of comprehensive data and up to date information. This can certainly not be accomplished by ALPENFORUM and IWS alone. It is, therefore, our intention to secure the support of stakeholders within the wood business, and to motivate private and government organisations as well as research institutions to cooperate as partners with us in this project. We believe that the establishment of such an integrated, digital and global Wood platform will most certainly support the basic concept of Sustainable Development and serve the benefit of alpine economy , secure the existence of the beautiful mountain forests and landscape and last but not least help to stabilize the socio-economic and cultural status of mountain regions.

ALPENFORUM* and IWS** wish to present and discuss the (preliminary) results achieved within the framework of this project as a contribution of our organisations on behalf of the International Year of the Mountain 2002.

*ALPENFORUM: International Society for the Promotion of Alpine Interest, St. Georgen ob Murau (Austria) and Bad Homburg (Germany) **IWS: Institute for Economic and Social Questions, Visp (Switzerland)